Leuconotopicus is a genus of woodpeckers in the family Picidae native to North and South America.

Taxonomy

The genus was erected by the French ornithologist Alfred Malherbe in 1845 with Strickland's woodpecker (Leuconotopicus stricklandi) as the type species.[1] The name Leuconotopicus combines the Ancient Greek leukos meaning "white", nōton meaning "back" and pikos meaning "woodpecker".[2] The genus is sister to the genus Veniliornis and is one of eight genera placed in the tribe Melanerpini within the woodpecker subfamily Picinae.[3] The species now placed in this genus were previously assigned to Picoides.[4][5]

The genus contains the following six species:[5]

Genus Leuconotopicus – Malherbe, 1845 – six species
Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population
Red-cockaded woodpecker


Male
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Female

Leuconotopicus borealis
(Vieillot, 1809) 		southeastern United States from Florida to Virginia, as far west as eastern Texas and Oklahoma; formerly Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, and Tennessee
Map of range 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 NT 


Smoky-brown woodpecker


Male
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Female

Leuconotopicus fumigatus
(D'Orbigny, 1840)

Five subspecies
 Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela
Map of range 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Arizona woodpecker


Male
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Female

Leuconotopicus arizonae
(Hargitt, 1886) 		southern Arizona and New Mexico and the Sierra Madre Occidental of western Mexico
Map of range 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Strickland's woodpecker


Leuconotopicus stricklandi
(Malherbe, 1845) 		Mexico
Map of range 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Hairy woodpecker


Male
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Female

Leuconotopicus villosus
(Linnaeus, 1766)

Seventeen subspecies
  • L. v. septentrionalis (Nuttall, 1840)
  • L. v. picoideus (Osgood, 1901)
  • L. v. harrisi (Audubon, 1838)
  • L. v. terraenovae (Batchelder, 1908)
  • L. v. villosus (Linnaeus, 1766)
  • L. v. orius (Oberholser, 1911)
  • L. v. monticola (Anthony, 1898)
  • L. v. leucothorectis (Oberholser, 1911)
  • L. v. audubonii (Swainson, 1832)
  • L. v. hyloscopus (Cabanis & Heine, 1863)
  • L. v. icastus (Oberholser, 1911)
  • L. v. intermedius (Nelson, 1900)
  • L. v. jardinii Malherbe, 1845
  • L. v. sanctorum (Nelson, 1897)
  • L. v. extimus (Bangs, 1902)
  • L. v. piger (Allen, GM, 1905)
  • L. v. maynardi (Ridgway, 1887)
Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and the United States; vagrant to Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos Islands
Map of range 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


White-headed woodpecker


Male
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Female

Leuconotopicus albolarvatus
(Cassin, 1850)

Two subspecies
  • L. a. albolarvatus (Cassin, 1850)
    Common white-headed woodpecker
  • L. a. gravirostris (Grinnell, 1902)
    Southern white-headed woodpecker
British Columbia through southern California
Map of range 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


References

  1. ^ Malherbe, Alfred (1845). "Description de trois espèces nouvelles du genre Picus, Linné". Revue Zoologique par la Société Cuvierienne (in French and Latin). 8: 373.
  2. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  3. ^ Shakya, S.B.; Fuchs, J.; Pons, J.-M.; Sheldon, F.H. (2017). "Tapping the woodpecker tree for evolutionary insight". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 116: 182–191. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.09.005. PMID 28890006.
  4. ^ Fuchs, J.; Pons, J.M. (2015). "A new classification of the pied woodpeckers assemblage (Dendropicini, Picidae) based on a comprehensive multi-locus phylogeny". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 88: 28–37. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2015.03.016. PMID 25818851.
  5. ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Woodpeckers". World Bird List Version 6.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 5 May 2016.